The booklet essay is called Excursions and is prefaced by a sentence from Clément Rosset: the person who is Duchesse de Guermantes is less interesting by far than the mellifluous name. Music needs fixed guideposts, it says there, and yet these become hazier the more closely one tries to fix them into place. From that observation the way leads to the exoticism of the early 18th century — to the appreciation of foreign things outside their original context, which became the driving force of European musical life.
Italy, or more precisely Venice, was in those years the creative centre of Europe, with its operas, sinfonias, ballet performances, women’s orchestras and concertos for virtuosi. Every country dealt with this in its own way: France staged downright quarrels and spoke of the reunification of styles, England watched the foreigners fighting with amusement, and Germany pragmatically invented the mixed style — Italian elements performed in the French manner with German technique. Italian musicians were held in high regard at every court: Mascitti in Paris, Matteis in London, Dall’Abaco in Munich, Scarlatti in Madrid, Locatelli in Amsterdam. Even Vivaldi wrote six concertos for transverse flute entitled La Francia, L’Ingilterra, L’Olanda, La Germania, La Spagna and L’Italia, all of which are lost.
Little has come down to us about Domenico Maria Dreyer and Louis Détry; both were active in the 17th and 18th centuries, and their music has to speak for them. Four sonatas by Dreyer are heard here: the Sonata in C major for recorder and basso continuo, which stays concise and dance-like with its Allegro, Largo and Giga, and three sonatas for oboe — the Sonata Sesta in A minor with its Siciliana, the Sonata Quinta in G minor, which opens with a Largo e cantabile, and the Sonata Seconda in C major, whose Adagio, at over three minutes, is the most extended slow movement on the album. From Détry comes the Sonata in C minor for recorder, in four movements following the sequence slow–fast–slow–fast.
Vivaldi’s trio sonata in A minor for recorder, bassoon and basso continuo closes the programme. Here the two wind instruments appear as equal partners, and the bassoon leaves the supporting bass role it has in the other pieces. Renata Duarte changes between recorder and baroque oboe in the course of the album; Aline Zylberajch at the harpsichord, Annabelle Luis on the cello and Ricardo Rapoport on the bassoon form the continuo in varying combinations.
The recording was made from 5 to 8 February 2019 at the Immanuelskirche in Wuppertal, in stereo, 5.1 surround and 3D binaural stereo. The 48-page booklet appears in three languages, German, English and French; the cover shows an oil painting on wood by Edwaert Collier of 1662.